Hot tubs, or spas as they are sometimes denominated, have been in use for many years. Modernly, both fixed and portable hot tubs are in wide use. These hot tubs come in a variety of geometries, but are generally round or rectangular. Common to most hot tubs is a cover that is used to keep the water from cooling off when the hot tub is not in use. These covers are constructed of a thick insulation and have a fabric skin to protect the underlying insulation.
While not true for virtually all hot tub covers, far and away the majority are dimensioned approximately the same. The covers have a foam insulating section that is four to six inches thick and a vinyl or canvas covering skin to protect the foam from harmful solar rays and weather. Many of the contemporary covers fold in half in order to allow the user to remove the cover for use. Common to these covers are two elements: they are awkward and bulky, and they are heavy after the insulation has become saturated with water. This saturation occurs due to water vapor condensation from the underlying body of water.
Contemporary hot tub covers appear in two main design camps. The first is the free standing type cover. In this design the user must remove the cover and wrestle it to a temporary storage place during hot tub use. Due to the large sail area involved, any breeze will make the cover very difficult to handle and can cause injury to the user. However, this type of design does have the advantage of removing the cover completely from the view of the hot tub user.
The second design type is the hinged cover. In this design a frame is attached to the hot tub and the cover then attached to the frame by some mechanical means. When the user desires to enter the hot tub, the cover is folded or lifted and then folded, with the bulk of the force being taken up by the hinge mechanism. This neatly solves the problem of the stand alone covers, but introduces a highly undesirable problem; the user's view is blocked by the cover on the end of the tub to which the hinge mechanism is attached.
What would be desirable would be a hot tub cover storage apparatus that would eliminate both the problem with the difficulty in handling associated with stand alone covers and at the same time the view blockage problem associated with the hinged type covers.